In a manufacturing process of parts of a simulated cigarette (or e-cigarette) various processing operations generally need to be carried out on the parts. The parts are generally carried by a product carrier. The parts may be relatively small and may be quite fragile. The processing operations may need to be carried out in a specific way.
In the present invention it was recognized that the possibilities of controlling the position and orientation of these parts relative to the product carrier during the various processing steps in an assembly line are limited. In particular, the orientation of the parts may be random during the conveying of the parts through an assembly line, and this may seriously hinder a processing operation. For instance, the parts may simply have a wrong orientation so that it becomes impossible to carry out the processing operation.